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Perelman firm fined $720K for filing lapse

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Billionaire Ron Perelman's investment firm, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., has agreed to pay a $720,000 penalty to the U.S. government for failing to notify authorities in advance of an acquisition that would have triggered a review by antitrust authorities.

The fine was for MacAndrews & Forbes' purchase of a stake in lottery ticket company Scientific Games Corp., according to a statement Thursday by the Federal Trade Commission.

MacAndrews & Forbes initially made a filing to regulatory authorities before it bought a stake in Scientific Games in February 2007, and it had five years to add to that stake because of that government clearance. But it bought 800,000 more shares in June 2012 after the grace period had expired, without making a required new filing.

The company had argued in court that its failure to file a second time was inadvertent.